KNIPEX External Snap Ring Pliers-Forged Tips

This is definitely one of the best snap ring pliers I have ever seen. They are very strong and well-built. While the tips are larger than some of the snap rings, that's not an issue. You can file them down, and you'll still have a strong set of pliers. I encountered a similar situation, but I managed to insert the tips into the space between both ends of the ring and squeezed the handles. Boom! It came right off.

High-quality, well-made snap ring pliers manufactured in Germany. Excellent for hard-to-reach snap rings. Knipex never disappoints! Highly recommend if you want a quality tool that will last a lifetime.

05-12 Superduty wheel hub/axle snap ring. Bought and tried 5 pairs locally, after 4 hours of effort none would remove. These removed it in 5 sec. Perfect for this application!!!

If you work on 3/4 ton and heavier trucks these are a must have. I have two F250s ('06 and '07) and for the lower ball joint snap ring and the front axle shaft snap ring nothing in my tool box would work. Most snap ring pliers are for small snap rings, and work great for that. The problem with larger snap rings is that the holes are larger making the pliers designed for smaller snap rings a sloppy fit, and prone to slipping off rather than spreading the ring. The smaller ones also don't have enough travel to expand the larger rings large enough to slip them off. These work very well for the larger rings. Just make sure you get them fully seated before trying to spread the ring. This can be hard, especially inside the hub where space and light are at a premium. If you rotate the ring to where the ears are at the top it makes verifying the pliers are seated easier. Overall great tool which arrived the next day.

Job: Honda Fit A/C clutch (worked great with caveats).After buying a pair of snap ring pliers from the auto parts store (they were expensive, didn’t open wide enough, and broke immediately), I came to Amazon to find something higher quality.I was encouraged when I saw it stamped Germany, hoping that the craftsmanship would be high. They didn’t disappoint. When they showed up, I gave them a squeeze and you could feel the weight and quality. They would obviously open wide enough. These are extremely well made.As one reviewer mentioned, the pins won’t fit into the holes of an OEM Honda AC Clutch snap ring but did fit perfectly into the aftermarket snap ring. This wasn’t a big deal for me, but if I absolutely needed to reuse the OE snap ring, I would have filed the pins a little bit so they would fit. Not ideal but very simple solution. EDIT: they also will not fit the smaller ring, OE or aftermarket. The smaller one is closer and easier so I made do with other tools.Bottom line: great for automotive work. If I found myself needing to do more work like this, I would buy this brand in a number of sizes and tip styles.

My pair arrived with bent tips. Normally, I wouldn't complain about this in a review, but it's Knipex's fault. They are just loose in a cardboard box. These pliers have pretty tiny tips and they need some basic protection. I was able to bend them back, but I shouldn't have to. The whole point of a brand of Knipex is that it should just work.

The types of snap ring pliers with interchangeable tips are often too big, or too short to get into tight spaces. I needed a pair of straight-tipped, longer reach snap ring pliers to help in removing a rusted-on external snap ring holding the coil assembly of an automobile A/C electromagnetic clutch to the compressor body and in replacing the old snap ring with a new one for the new coil assembly. The Knipex pliers were up to the task, but my first OEM kit had rusty parts and a cheap snap ring which bent easily and was the wrong size for the job; I returned that kit and the second OEM kit left the critical snap ring out of the kit completely. Rather than continuing to order and return expensive kits, I measured the required dimensions of the snap ring with a micrometer and ordered several from a reputable industrial supply house. Larger external snap rings come in precise sizes and are very hard to find either on Amazon or at local auto parts stores, but if your car A/C stops coming on because of an electrical short, it's much easier to use an A/C clutch kit to fix the problem (no R134a gas is released from the compressor) than spending a lot more money having qualified professionals replace your compressor assembly and other related parts, and removing and storing the R134a gas inside a machine, as required by law, and then recharging the system when it is all put back together. But you can't replace the A/C clutch at all without the right tools, which includes having a pair of these wonderful Knipex snap ring pliers, built by German crafts men and women. I highly recommend this tool, and the other pliers of all sorts made by Knipex.

I wasted $$ on cheaper pliers for a job. Bought these and am totally satisfied . Buy these first and save you time and money